Drug Prohibition: 50 Years of Profit for Organized Crime

Who have been the main beneficiaries of the United Nations’ 50-year international treaty to prohibit certain drugs? These thank-you videos to the UN from (fake) organized criminals give us a few illustrations of the rich and powerful monsters created by prohibition.

From Drug Reporter, the drug policy website of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union:

50 years ago the United Nations adopted the first international treaty to prohibit some drugs – particularly drugs used by non-Europeans such as cannabis, cocaine and heroin. The logic of the system was simple: any use of the drugs listed, unless sanctioned for medical or scientific purposes, would be deemed ‘abuse’ and thus illegal. As a result of this convention, the unsanctioned production and trafficking of these drugs became a crime in all member states of the UN. It is now clear that punitive drug policies have several unintended consequences: they fuel the global HIV epidemic, undermine public health systems, result in a crisis for criminal justice systems, lead to severe human rights violations and create a massive illicit market worth an estimated annual value of almost 400 billion USD. There is a small group though that benefits from the global war on drugs: organized criminals and terrorists. (Read more about the global drug war!) […]

The HCLU initiatied this public advocacy campaign to raise awareness on the costs of the global drug war – the costs we pay not only in money but in human lives and human rights. We join the call of other like-minded NGOs on the United Nations and the national governments to undertake a transparent review of the effectiveness of current drug policies.

A Russian Heroin Trader Thanks the UN for 50 Years of Prohibition

Mexican Drug Lord Thanks the UN for 50 Years of Prohibition

Taliban Leader Thanks the UN for 50 Years of Prohibition

Girlfriend of a Drug Kingpin thanks the UN for 50 years of prohibition

Jeremiah Vandermeer is editor of Cannabis Culture. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.